With a wide variety of products you can be sure of always keeping your customers satisfied, and choosing quality doesn’t mean having to dig too deep. There are popular ranges offering excellent performance and great value. There are classics which are a great long-term investment – the kind of tools handed down from generation to generation, guaranteed for up to 25 years of hard work and certain to please the most green fingered and the discerning professional. Our invention and innovation has helped shape great gardens through the centuries. Like your customers, we take pride in a job well done.

The Spear & Jackson name is a world-famous brand with real heritage and a very proud tradition. we have been combining traditional craftsmanship and leading edge technology for over 250 years.

SPEAR & JACKSON HISTORY

If there is one word that people associate with Sheffield it is steel. The city (then a mere town) was known for the production of knives in the 14th century, and by 1600 had become the main centre for cutlery manufacture in England. In the 1740s, a form of the crucible steel process was discovered that allowed the manufacture of better quality steel than had previously been available, and this innovation spurred the growth of Sheffield as an industrial town.

And it was not long after - in 1760 - when the foundations of the one of the city's best known firms, and one synonymous with steel; Spear & Jackson, were laid. It was in this year that a draper named John Love and a Wakefield merchant, Alexander Spear, decided that steel offered a better living than cloth and went into business together. By 1814, the business had passed down to Alexander's nephew John, who took on an apprentice - Sam Jackson - to learn 'ye art, trade or mystery of sawmaking'. Sam's first job was carrying blades from the forge to the grinding wheels yet, by 1830, he had obviously proved his worth as a new partnership was formed - Spear & Jackson.

Neill Tools, Spear & Jackson's parent company, can meanwhile 'only' chart a history as far back as 1889, when James Neill, a successful accountant, turned to steelmaking and patented 'composite' steel (steel-backed iron) for hacksaw blades. Registering the Eclipse trademark in 1909, Neill started making the world's first composite steel hacksaw blades in 1911. By 1924, frames had been added to the range and the company introduced the classic shape which all hacksaws now mirror. Fast-forwarding to the 80s, Neill Tools bought Spear & Jackson in 1985, renaming the business Spear & Jackson plc in 1995. But Neill, Eclipse and Spear & Jackson aren't the whole brand story.

The group also includes the famous WHS trowel brand. Originally known as William Hunt & Sons, WHS is popularly said to stand for 'Work Hard or Starve' and - among other things - its 4" pointing trowels are especially favoured by archaeologists; rows breaking out on the internet whenever another trowel company tries to win the hearts and minds of these 'time team' diggers.

Also within the company is the well-known Tyzack range of plastering tools. Founded by another Sheffield lad, William Tyzack (1781- 1858); the company really got into its stride through his nephew Joseph. Having developed a profitable working relationship with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, Joseph registered the Isle of Man triskelion 'legs' - still proudly worn by the company today - with the Cutlers' Company in 1847.

Centuries of experience and innovation have resulted in the materials and development expertise that resides within the company today; and "continuous innovation" is at the heart of the company's ethos. This drive to improve product materials and performance can be seen in many different ways across the company's 3,000 lines.

The organisation has come a long way since 1760, and the Spear & Jackson Group now manufactures and distributes garden tools, metrology equipment, woodworking tools and magnetic equipment under several brand names: Neill Tools, Bowers, Robert Sorby, Moore and Wright, Eclipse, WHS and Tyzack. With divisions across England, France and Australia, Spear & Jackson distributes products throughout the world.